For World of Warcraft players, the shadows are drawing near. The next big expansion, Shadowlands, has a new release date of November 23. The pre-patch brought a massive level squish to the game in addition to several smaller changes. There is still plenty for to do before the official World of Warcraft: Shadowlands expansion releases, and there is only two weeks left for them to do it.
For players that haven’t been keeping up with the story so far, the basics of Shadowlands is that the former leader of the Horde, Sylvanas Windrunner, has ripped a hole into the Afterlife. It turns out that all of the craziness that happened in the Battle for Azeroth expansion was mostly due to The Jailer--a big bad of Shadowlands who collects souls in the Maw--guiding Sylvanas along in order to create death and destruction. Players will venture into the Shadowlands and stop The Jailer, but there is still plenty to do before then.
Death’s Rising
The event that will kick off Shadowlands is the Death’s Rising event, starting November 10. This sees the Scourge—now masterless thanks to Sylvanas destroying the Lich King’s Helm of Domination—run free through Stormwind City and Orgrimmar. Similar to the two previous Scourge events in Vanilla and Wrath of the Lich King, players will fight against undead or else become a zombie themselves. Leading up to this event is the World of Warcraft Welcome Back Weekend event, where former subscribers can return to Azeroth for free from November 5 to November 9.
Choose a Covenant
One of the biggest decisions in Shadowlands is choosing a covenant to side with. The four main zones in the new expansion each feature a different group of characters that players can aid and receive boons from. Bastion contains the Kyrian and features angelic defenders and a focus on purpose and soul guides. Maldraxxus is home to the Necrolords who value strength and military might. Ardenweald is made up of Night Fae and features nature and woodland creatures, focusing on the life cycle. Revendreth, home to the vampiric Venthyr, is where the unworthy are punished and tormented for all of time.
Once a player quests their way through these four locations, they must then choose one Shadowlands covenant to bond with. Each covenant grants different boons to the character, so this choice is very important and players should already begin thinking it through. Notable NPCs that are a part of each covenant include Uther Lightbringer, hero of the light, in Bastion; Draka of the Frostwolves, mother to Thrall, in Maldraxxus; Cenarius, Lord of the Forest, in Ardenweald, and Kael’thas Sunstrider, former Lord of the Blood Elves, in Revendreth.
Level Up Alts
For any player who is daunted by choosing only one of the four covenants, there is always the option to level up extra characters in order to experience all of what Shadowlands has to offer. Alts also give players the chance to run raids multiple times a week and level several professions at once. With the current Anniversary buff that players can get, in addition to the new Chromie Time leveling experience, hitting the new level cap is almost a breeze right now.
Finish Collections
One final thing that players need to work on is their endless to-do list. Collections and achievements are mostly an ongoing task through World of Warcraft, but it seems even more important as new expansions draw near. Island Expeditions provide many Battle Pets and mounts for players but require 3-person parties. Warfronts also provide many rare World of Warcraft pets and mounts that players can unlock, but these require resource donations from entire factions in order to access. Once Shadowlands comes out and the majority of players leave Battle for Azeroth content, these will be incredibly difficult to do every week. Players should make a list and see where their priorities lie so that they know how to spend these last couple of weeks.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will release on November 23 for PC.
Source: WoWHead